BERSERKER

Prologue

Ava

I stretched and sat up in the bed I shared with Nicole in our one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica.

Nicole was my birth mother but she wasn't really a mother, if you know what I mean.

Nicole had a mate that died, which is husband in immortal language. She hasn't been the same since, drinking, doing drugs, and selling her body to make rent.

My father unfortunately, died before I was born. But I guess it's better that you can't miss someone you never knew. I wondered sometimes if I would be like Nicole if I knew him before he died.

The only Nicole I knew, is a druggy vampire. Yes. A vampire. She meets men every night to make money to keep our apartment.

Sometimes though, it isn't enough. So every morning, I get dressed in an overgrown hoodie, left behind by one of the guys, tattered jeans, beat up tennis shoes and head out.

I have a route I take every day, passing by rich Santa Monica residents. Most of the time, I'm observing each person from the cover of my black hood.

A woman, with her arms full of groceries, walks out of Whole Foods heading to her car. She wasn't paying attention as she made her way to pass me. So I purposely ran into her sliding my hand into her purse locating her wallet right away.

"Sorry!" She said as she moved away from me and kept going. Her car lights flickered as she pressed a button on her key fob to open her trunk.

I hurried out of sight and shoved her wallet in the front pocket of the hoodie.

I got back to our old and dirty apartment building. I clamored up the stairs and opened the door to our apartment, closing it before taking out the wallet.

"Good girl, Ava." Nicole cooed from the dusty old couch like I was some kind of dog. She got up and walked over to me, snagging the wallet and pulling out all the money.

I glared at her exasperatedly and sighed. "That's for rent, Nicole."

"It'll be fine." She smiled and did a little dance. "I have a client coming."

I sighed again but this time with relief. Hopefully the guy will pay enough to pay our rent for the next month considering we are already behind.

"Well, get out. He should be here soon." He said shooing me out the door.

I turned and walked out to head to Sunrise. It's a brewery with the best pizza around. I normally hung out at Sunrise until they closed. The guy that owned it is named Taylor Derwood. He always gave me free food whenever I came in.

He is a vampire like my mom and quite an attractive guy. The ladies always flock to him when they enter the place. He has this sparkly smile and chiseled features. If he wasn't like a brother to me, maybe I would be attracted too.